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In an order in August, state District Judge Martha Tanner ordered hundreds of pages of internal BSA documents from the mid-1980s through 2011 released.

But state District Judge Laura Salinas later modified that order after Tanner retired, and said only files from 1996 through 2006 should be released to plaintiff's attorneys.

Salinas also ordered that the names be redacted of people who reported the alleged sexual abuse and victims under age 18.

As part of the order, Salinas also specified that information “shall be kept confidential and the material produced shall be shared only with the attorneys of record, their experts and their staff in this case, each of whom shall agree to confidentiality.”

The BSA appealed, arguing the organization shouldn't have to release the files, because keeping them confidential would encourage victims to come forward.

“I think other courts have ordered them to produce these files also,” said attorney Pat Maloney Jr., who represents a former Scout who sued the BSA, its local chapter and an ex-Scout leader over sexual abuse. “It's a big appellate victory for those who have been abused in the Boy Scout system to find out how widespread the abuse is.”

The Irving-based BSA last summer lost a similar battle in the courts in Oregon, and thousands of pages of Ineligible Volunteer files, also known as “perversion files,” from 1965 through 1985 were released and made headlines across the country. Other courts in California and Minnesota, for instance, have also ruled against the BSA.

Some of the files named former volunteers or troop leaders in Bexar County and throughout Texas.

The released files contain unsubstantiated allegations and names of people who reported wrongdoing, names of juveniles who alleged sexual assaults, and the names of accused men who were never charged.

Maloney and his co-counsel with an Oregon law firm seek the files to use as evidence in the lawsuit alleging Scoutmaster James Hiatt sexually abused a 12-year-old boy in 2004 and 2005.

Hiatt was once a scoutmaster with Troop 41 in San Antonio and was convicted in a 2008 criminal case of sexually abusing the boy. Hiatt was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

The suit alleges Hiatt used his authority and position of trust to force the boy to engage in sexual acts. The suit also accuses the Boy Scouts of knowing that pedophiles wanted jobs and volunteer positions within their organization.

The organization denies the allegations.

Maloney said he expects the lawsuit might go to trial later this year.